World Bank offers infra badge of honor

The World Bank Group has developed a public-private partnership (PPP) badge of honor so that there is a common understanding of what is deliverable and when it will be delivered between infrastructure practitioners.

The United Nation’s financial arm, together with the Asian Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, will introduce the Global Certification Program (GCP) in mid-2015. The certification aims to help developing economy countries, which lack the expertise in both public and private sectors, to design, implement and regulate PPPs, said the World Bank.

“We believe this certification program can fill an important gap in current approaches to capacity building by developing a global standard of knowledge, helping to facilitate the development of a common language on PPPs and harmonize expectations and understanding between practitioners involved at different stages and on different sides of the PPP process,” said in a statement Laurence Carter, senior director for PPPs at the World Bank.

The examination and accreditation body APMG-International has been selected to develop and manage the GCP, following an open invitation to tender. APMG has experience in program and project management certification programs including PMDPro, the certification for project managers working in humanitarian and disaster zones.

“Up-skilling those responsible for the management of PPP programs will deliver significant benefits to the communities they are designed to help,” said Richard Pharro, chief executive of APMG. “We hope they will also be a challenge and stimulation for those who take the training courses and put themselves forward for the examinations, starting in 2015.”